Utility provider cuts off gas to Hungarian public schools for non-payment

E.ON, a regional utility provider, has shut off service to several schools in Somogy county due to growing arrears on behalf of the national government’s education agency responsible for the operation and maintenance of Hungarian public schools, the Klebelsberg Centre (KLIK), reports Somogy county news website Sonline.hu.

Gas was shut off at the schools in Mernye (pop. ~1,500) on Thursday and Somogyjád (pop. ~1,500) on Friday.

Sonline.hu reports that service is being cut off to a number of settlements around Kaposvár and Siófok.

“This is a serious problem for us because we have a social kitchen in the [school’s] building that prepares food for 62 locals and the school’s kindergarteners, and also serves as the food kitchen for Somogygeszti, Polány, Ecseny, Szentgáloskér, Somodor, and Felsőmocsolád,” says Mernye’s mayor András Kisfalusi.

According to the mayor, the kitchen provides meals for almost two hundred individuals every day.

“[The kitchen in Mernye] cooks meals for the kindergarteners, disenfranchised people living in social housing, and those who are entitled to receive food support,” says Kisfalusi.

“This kitchen also makes food for those in Osztopán, Edde, Juta, Várda, and Alsóbogát. To my knowledge there are a number of settlements [who will have their gas shut off] because KLIK hasn’t been paying its gas bill. [The gas provider] is no longer allowing the debts to be paid off in installments, they want it to be paid off entirely,” Kisfalusi says.

KLIK has yet to formally issue a statement regarding the gas shut-offs.